October 18, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Puntland President Agrees Peace Deal With Galmudug
17 October – Source: Garowe Online – 257 Words
Reports indicate that Puntland President, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas has accepted a peace pact aimed to end hostility with neighboring Galmudug Interim Administration. Close sources tell Garowe Online that Somali Federal leaders brokered the deal between the warring administrations. President Ali who is in overseas visit to UAE, is pushing efforts to persuade state and security officials to support the peace agreement. Under the brokered peace agreement, both Puntland and Galmudug will implement ceasefire and refrain from actions that could exacerbate the conflict, suspend the construction of livestock market, allow to resume the operations of Galmudug’s Airport and create Ministerial committee to hold bilateral talks to be concluded in the capital Mogadishu with the participation of Somali National Leadership Forum (NLF).
This is the second peace deal to be reached between Puntland and Galmudug following the collapse of previous agreement brokered by the Somali leaders and International community in December 2015. The peace deal comes amid Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke’s visit to Puntland, as he previously took part in the efforts to end deadly clashes last year. The fighting erupted after an argument involving the construction of a livestock market by Puntland state in Galkayo city has prompted Galmudug forces to attack the site.The warring administrations have fought frequently over contested areas in Mudug region, causing civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of residents from Galkayo city. Galkayo town is divided into two zones, with the northern part of the city forming part of Puntland state, while the southern part is under the Galmudug administration.
Key Headlines
- Puntland President Agrees Peace Deal With Galmudug (Garowe Online)
- New President Elected For Hiirshabelle State (Goobjoog News)
- Pro-govt Army Recapture Town After Al-Shabaab Retreat (Shabelle News)
- 3 Suspects In Bomb Plot Against Somalis To Face Kansas Court (Associated Press/Hiiraan Online)
- Somalia Closes Newspaper Arrests Editor (CPJ)
- Meet The Courageous Women Fighting Terrorism In Africa (Take Part)
NATIONAL MEDIA
New President Elected For Hiirshabelle State
17 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 133 Words
Ali Abdullahi Osoble has been elected as the new president of Hiirshabelle State. Osoble won 61 votes out of 97 votes casted by the state assembly. Ali Abdullahi Hussein Gudlawe was also elected as vice president of Hirshebble with an absolute majority. The election of Ali Osoble and Gudlawe marks the end of Somalia’s Federalization process. Hirshebble is fifth Federal state to emerge from long and controversial process. Osoble was born in Mogadishu and educated in America. He holds a degree of Agro-economics at Sam Houston State University in America. He was elected Federal MP in 2004 and then won second term in 2008-2012. The vice president Ali Hussien Gudlawe was the governor of Middle shabelle region for the last two years and resigned his post days ago to run for vice presidency.
Pro-govt Army Recapture Town After Al-Shabaab Retreat
17 October – Source: Shabelle News – 139 Words
Somali government forces backed by armored vehicles and artillery are reportedly recaptured Muuri town in Lower Shabelle region after losing control of the key town to Al-Shabaab. Al shabaab fighters have briefly lectured villagers, hoisted their flag on roof of the city’s administrative headquarters and police station on Sundaynight before retreating. Local residents stated that many people fled their homes due to heavy mortar shelling and that Al-Shabaab militants set 10 houses which belonging government officials on fire before leaving the town on Monday. On Sunday afternoon, Al-Shabaab militants in fighting vehicles have attacked Muuri district, some 13 Km away from Afgoye town from two directions, forcing Somali national army soldiers out of town. Al-Shabaab claimed it killed unspecified number of Somali government soldiers in the attack on SNA military bases in Muuri, according to pro-militant media outlet.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
3 Suspects In Bomb Plot Against Somalis To Face Kansas Court
17 October – Source: Associated Press/Hiiraan Online – 130 Words
Three men accused of plotting to target Somali immigrants in a diverse western Kansas community are to make their first federal court appearances.Curtis Wayne Allen, Patrick Eugene Stein and Gavin Wayne Wright are charged in a complaint unsealed Friday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Online court records show they’re to appear Monday morning in a Wichita courtroom. The complaint says the men are members of a small militia group calling itself “the Crusaders,” and that its members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs.Prosecutors allege the men planned to detonate truck bombs around a small Garden City apartment complex where about 120 Somali residents live. Authorities say the men talked of attacking area churches that helped settle refugees and get them jobs
Somalia Closes Newspaper, Arrests Editor
17 October – Source: CPJ – 383 Words
Somali authorities should immediately release the editor of Xog Ogaal newspaper and allow the newspaper to resume publishing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Officers from Somalia’s National Intelligence Agency raided the newspaper’s office and arrested its editor on October 15, according to press freedom advocates and press reports. The newspaper ceased publishing after agents of Somalia’s National Intelligence Agency raided the offices of Xog Ogaal, one of the country’s oldest newspapers, and arrested the newspaper’s editor, Abdi Aden Guled. They also confiscated equipment from staff, the paper’s manager, Mohamed Mohamud, told the government-recognized National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). Ahmed Mohamed, a reporter with the newspaper, also confirmed the arrest to the Associated Press. “The arrest of Xog Ogaal’s editor, Abdi Aden Guled, and the silencing of one of Somalia’s oldest newspapers should be cause for serious international alarm,” CPJ East Africa Representative Murithi Mutiga said. “Somali authorities must demonstrate that they continue to abide by their commitments to press freedom by releasing the journalist and allowing the newspaper to resume publication without delay. “Somali officials did not immediately disclose the reasons for the arrest raid or whether there was a formal order to the newspaper to stop publishing. Somalia’s information minister, Mohamed Abdi, told CPJ that he was not immediately able to comment.NUSOJ Secretary-General Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu told CPJ he had spoken to an official with the intelligence agency who said the agency had been ordered to arrest Abdi by a “senior government official,” whom he did not name. He said the official had complained about Xog Ogaal’s recent publication of what he called “graphic photos” of people said to have been killed by al-Shabaab militants after Ethiopian troops withdrew from the El Ali village in the Hiraan region.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Somali and international security forces are primary targets for the al-Qaida-linked militia. In July, the group attacked the Mogadishu criminal investigations department, killing at least 10 people. In mid-September a car bomb exploded, killing a prominent Somali general and several of his officers,”
Meet The Courageous Women Fighting Terrorism In Africa
17 October – Source: Take Part – 629 Words
On a warm September morning, behind the towering blast-proof concrete walls of Mogadishu National Police Academy, a batch of young recruits celebrate graduation. Fatima Abdi Mohamed, 24, is one of six graduating women who are entering Somalia’s nascent national police force. She is the first woman in her family to wear the uniform.For Mohamed’s entire life, Somalia has been in the throes of war: A decades-long civil war was sparked in 1991, creating a security vacuum that gave way to piracy and the rise of Islamist militant groups, including the Al-Qaida-aligned Al-Shabaab. She has seen improvement, however, over the last two years and space opening for women to publicly participate in rebuilding the country.“I realized the situation in my country required young, educated people to contribute,” Mohamed tells TakePart, recalling why she persuaded her family to allow her to join the police on graduation from high school. “In the past, you would see uneducated security forces, but now we are starting to see that educated people are better equipped to understand and establish the rule of law.”
Somalia’s police force is some 7,000 officers strong.
Ten percent are women, according to Lt. Col. Zakia Hussen. She says the force recently recruited its first two female SWAT members, adding that “this was unthinkable before today. ”Hussen mentors the women during their months of training. She hails from the expansive Somali diaspora—she was born in the capital city of Mogadishu but educated in London, and she returned to her homeland in 2013. Hussen holds three degrees, including a master’s in international relations, and her high rank earns her respect in a heavily gendered society.“Women are the backbone of the Somali society. They’re also better skilled in community relations and management skills than the males. The Somali Police Force is in desperate need of such skills, as the long civil war took its toll on the force,” she says. Police officers, on patrol or overseeing neighborhood checkpoints, are frequently the target of Al-Shabaab attacks. Mohamed is aware of the danger yet undeterred. “The bombs don’t discriminate, whether you are a police officer or a civilian. Everyone is affected. Part of the reason I joined was in order to fight that,” she says.